Chris Harrison: Brooks Forester Had to Break Desiree Hartsock’s Heart

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In-house therapist Chris Harrison blogs about every episode of Desiree Hartsock’s season of The Bachelorette for Entertainment Weekly, and you can feel him shaking his head as he writes about Brooks Forester. Unfortunately, the in-house expert on whirlwind romance doesn’t seem to support our lingering hope that Brooks will realize he does love Des as much as she loves him, and swoop in to propose on next week’s finale. Way to dash our hopes, Chris!

“Because she was so in love with him, or so she thought, [Des] either couldn’t see these warning signs, or was ‘running’ so fast that she blew right past them. I guess we all believe what we want to believe,” Chris writes. “At no time, however, did I think it would come to this,” he continued.

What made Chris so certain Brooks was not the one? “After seeing the talk with his family, which I didn’t see until much later, I realized he knew going in what he wanted to do. He wanted to love [Des] so badly, but he knew before he went in to talk to his family that it just wasn’t there. He just needed his family to tell him exactly what he already knew. He had to tell Des he wasn’t in love with her; he had to break her heart.”

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Ugh. If that didn’t crush your Brooks/Des hopes enough, Chris continues writing of Brooks’s journey in the past tense, like this is one long obituary.

“I don’t think Brooks is a bad guy and I truly believe his intentions for being on this show were true. He really wanted to be in love with Des so much I think he almost forced himself into doing something he would have later regretted.”

Another thing that casts a huge shadow of doubt on our theory that Brooks returns? Brooks’ problem expressing his feelings. From day one, Desiree has said she wants a guy who can communicate.

She even referenced her ex again before entering the Fantasy Suite (buzzkill!) when repeating how he could never be the first to say he loved her, or express his feelings to her. Brooks is basically That Guy all over again. It took him a hundred years to even articulate that he was leaving Des, and after he left he seemed like he wasn’t even sure that’s what he wanted to do.

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“One thing about Brooks is that he has a very hard time articulating his feelings,” Chris writes. “I don’t know if this is a common thing for him, or if he knew it was just going to be so hard that he wanted to avoid it, but either way he struggles with expressing himself,” he continued. “He was like that with me and he was definitely like that with Des. It was quite some time into their talk before Des really knew that he was breaking up with her and leaving the show.”

As long as it took for babbling Brooks to get out anything coherent, imagine how much they had to cut out. It must’ve been even more painful in the editing booth. But Father Chris is making it as clear as he can — maybe even to Des, who still seems to be in love with Brooks — that Brooks is the exact kind of guy who broke her heart last time. No progress here. So what now? Chris asks that very same question.

“We will pick up next week with me talking to Des and trying to figure out what, if anything, is left for her here. Sitting with someone who is so incredibly brokenhearted and without hope is difficult. I just wanted to reach out and hug her. Let’s see if she can pick up the pieces, or if it is too late.”

We can’t wait to see how this is all resolved — and it will be especially awkward/heartbreaking to hear reactions from Drew Kenney and Chris Siegfried. They are victims here, too. Imagine being in love with Des and having to hear you were basically second or third in her heart the entire time. Yikes.